I've started floundering again. It all began when I started to design (!) the save-game / checkpoint device.

My first attempt was this:

Nice effect (with some more polish) but doesn't exactly scream checkpoint.

Regardless I decided to add some shader effects to make it warp and seem more energetic:

To implement this I've added an extra drawcall type into my render system for full-screen post-processing. This allows me to render the buffer-so-far using an arbitrary shader, and I can insert this at any depth I like.

So, the extra render tech will be useful, but as an effect this sucks a bit and doesn't really fit the asthetic at all.

So abandoning this I went full pixel and made this little beauty:

Now I'm quite proud of the machine in this one - with some glow effects and some electricity when it's on it might be quite effective.

However. It's still not a checkpoint! So now I've got two 'machines' and I don't know what either of them does, and still nothing to save the game with.

Like I said. Floundering.